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Welcome to Pressing Questions, Fast Companys work-life advice column. Every week, deputy editor Kathleen Davis, host of The New Way We Work podcast, will answer the biggest and most pressing workplace questions.Q: My boss is playing favorites, what should I do?A: So much of adult life can feel like you’re perpetually stuck in high school: gossip and office politics, making friends, and who the boss favors. If you feel like your boss is playing favorites, the first step is evaluating why you feel this way as objectively as possible. The more specific you are about the problem, the more specific you can be about how you address it. A vague feeling of I think you like Sam more than me, doesnt have much of a solution. Do other employees get more opportunities to work on high-profile projects? Do other employees seem to get more leeway to make mistakes? Are your colleagues getting promoted or praised and you arent? Does your boss just seem to like your colleagues more or have formed a friendship with them and not you? Once you pinpoint whats wrong (and it may be more than one thing), you can address the issue directly. Your feelings of being left out and overlooked are totally valid and worth bringing up. What you shouldnt do however is pit yourself against your colleagues. If you view it as a competition, you will lose. Your work is to improve your situation, not destroy someone elses. A rising tide lifts all boatsor at least it should. Whatever the issue, approach it as a problem you and your boss will solve together, not an accusation. If your colleagues are getting more opportunities So much of my workplace advice boils down to the same thing: Have a conversation with your boss. It’s the most obvious move, but also the thing that so many people avoid. If you want more opportunities to work on high-profile projects, set up a meeting with your boss and tell them exactly that. Dont frame it as something they owe you. Instead, come to the meeting with some ideas of what youd like to do. Explain how it fits into the companys goals, as well as your career goals. It wouldnt hurt to also have some examples of why you are ready for this new level of responsibility, too. Presented like this, even if your boss says “no,” they will be pressed to give you a reason and likely a time frame for when you can take on more. If your colleagues are getting promoted and praised When your coworkers are getting praise and promotions, it can feel particularly hard to not view it as a competition. But again its best to focus on yourself and your work. Follow all the advice for getting a promotion: Work above your current title and make sure your boss knows about your accomplishments.If you are doing all of those things but your colleague with the same title just got a bump up and you didnt, you can be more explicit in your next check-in. Try something like I feel my work is at the senior associate level. Can you help me understand what it would take for me to get to that level? If your colleagues get more leeway to make mistakes This is tricky, as you likely dont know all the factors behind what causes mistakes at work. Pitting your failures against someone elses isnt likely to end well. Instead, focus on getting feedback on your work and owning up to your mistakes if you make them. If your colleagues make mistakes that impact your work, deal with them as constructively as possible and outline your problem-solving to your manager. If your colleagues are allowed to make continuous mistakes, there will eventually be repercussions. If not, its a red flag for a toxic culture that you likely dont want to be a part of. Your boss just seems to like your colleagues more This is both a professional and a personal problem and the type of problem that can make you feel the most like you’re back in high school. Some people just click more than others. You can be a friendly colleague and just not form a close personal relationship with someone. You can do the work I mention above to try to change the way your boss views your work, but you cant really call a meeting to say You like Dave more than me. If there is an unprofessional level of favoritism or personal relationships between your boss and your colleagues, you can try to delicately raise it with your managers boss, or HR if you feel comfortable. But tread carefully.If you just feel like you want better relationships at work and its not clicking with your manager, look elsewhere. Make friends in other departments or start a project with someone on another team. Not only will it make you feel less alone, it might help your boss see how valuable you are. Want some more advice on favoritism at work? Here you go: What to do when your boss favors a colleague over you How to deal with a boss who plays favorites How to deal with favoritism at work
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trumps bowling-ball attitude to international relations and business was in evidence again this week as he announced a landmark $100 billion deal with Taiwanese computer chip manufacturer TSMC to bring more production capacity to the United States. The agreement with TSMC plans for five new factories to be built in the U.S., signed alongside TSMC CEO C.C. Wei in the White House on March 3. We must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here, Trump said as he announced the deal. Its a matter of national security for us. The move to onshore production of the chips that are powering the AI and broader tech revolution may well shore up U.S. national security. But those watching the dealalongside the stock market, which reacted by lowering the price of TSMC sharesworry that the agreement trades strengthened U.S. national security for weakened Taiwanese security. TSMCs additional $100 billion investment is likely to further expand the U.S. presence in global advanced chip manufacturing, which is currently dominated by Taiwan, says Ray Wang, a Washington D.C.-based analyst focusing on U.S.-China tech competition and the semiconductor industry in Asia. Thats good news for the United States. But onshoring the production of advanced computer chips that help power the AI revolution isnt necessarily good news for Taiwan. TSMC’s newly announced investment in manufacturing, packaging, and R&D in the United States will likely diminish Taiwans strategic importance for the U.S. and broader global economy in the long run, says Wang. For years, Taiwan has managed to fend off the threat of a Chinese invasion of the small island nation because of its strategic importance as the key global factory for computer chips. Its an advantage that the Taiwanese dubbed their “Silicon Shield.” Indeed, just days ago, the countrys economy minister, Kuo Jyh-huei, described Taiwans semiconductor industry as its sacred mountain protecting the country. Yet that sacred mountain looks a little more surmountable now. Ultimately it reduces U.S. dependence on Taiwanwhich reduces Taiwanese leverage over the U.S., says William Matthews, senior research fellow for China and the world in the Asia-Pacific program at Chatham House. Losing that leverage is a dangerous move, Matthews says, not least because of the way the United States has taken a more transactional approach to international relations, even with its allies, under Trump. From that point of view it reduces the incentive in Washington to defend Taiwan from China, explains Matthews. Unlike Ukraine, there isn’t an ongoing war, but Trump’s approach to the mineral deal is indicative of his attitude to international partnershipstransactional and potentially extractive while minimizing costs to the U.S. The Taiwanese economics minister said earlier this month that no deal with TSMC would be signed without the express agreement of the government, suggesting that TSMC hasnt yet granted the ability for U.S. plants to build the highest-spec chipsfor now. The Taiwanese government has said it will retain the most advanced tech but that doesn’t mean that it will do so forever, or that the U.S. won’t leap ahead with access to more advanced chip production on U.S. soil, warns Matthews. And at that point, theres little reason for the U.S. to defend Taiwan should the worst happen. That said, Wang, the tech competition analyst, isnt certain that its a zero-sum game. This additional investment could also strengthen U.S.-Taiwan relations economically and technologically, first potentially reducing the risk of being targeted by tariffs under the Trump administration and serving as a good start for future collaboration between the two governments, he says. But Matthews worries that it further isolates Taiwan geographically and could result in real worries in the Asia-Pacific region, where China has long threatened to invade Taiwan. The risk for Taiwan is that China’s approach is not one that prioritizes a war outside specific circumstancesthe declaration of formal independence or action taken by Taiwan or the U.S. that puts eventual unification in jeopardy, says Matthews. Instead, Matthews foresees there could be a long game of increasing grayzone activities like joint air and naval patrols, cyberattacks, and cable cutting, with an aim of wearing down Taiwan’s resolve. Such asymmetrical actions that come below the point of outright military intervention make it less and less likely that Trump would intervene now that much of the chip production the U.S. relies on Taiwan for has been onshoredbut ratchets up the tension nonetheless. It also gives China time to muster forces furthermuch as happened in Ukraine with Russia. All of this means that if and when China does take the step to occupy Taiwan, the costs of U.S. involvement will be much greater, says Matthews. If all goes to China’s plan, the U.S. will decide not to get involved in a conflict it could lose, and will be even less inclined to do so if the material incentive of protecting Taiwan’s chip sector is gone.
Category:
E-Commerce
In a test on fields in California last year, a plot of tomatoes looked exactly like the tomatoes growing next to it. But thanks to a tweak in how they were grown, they lasted longer: After they were harvested, they still looked and tasted fresh two weeks later. The new crop wasnt bred differently or genetically edited. Instead, the plants had been given an epigenetic treatment that fine-tunes certain traits without changing the plants DNA. That can happen either when the plant is a seed or by spraying a crop as it’s growing in the field. Decibel Bio, the startup behind the technology, is using the approach to help the food system deal with a range of growing challenges, including drought and extreme heat. The company emerged from stealth today, spinning out from another company called Sound Agriculture, with a $12 million financing round from Bill Gatess Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Future Ventures, Bayer, and Syngenta. Epigenetics is really a sort of frontier that hasnt been tapped into yet in plant science, says CEO and founder Travis Bayer (no relation to the family behind the agtech giant). Were at the forefront of that with our platform. The field of epigenetics studies how the environment changes the way genes are expressedin humans, for example, if we exercise or eat differently, our genes start to work differently, though the underlying DNA is the same. In the case of the tomatoes, exposing the seeds to certain pieces of the plants own DNA resulted in tuning down enzymes that naturally degrade the fruit. What were really doing is working with what the plant has, but just making a little bit less of that enzyme that is responsible for the cell wall degradation, Bayer says. The tomatoes lasted roughly twice as long as they otherwise would have. A similar approach for lettuce yielded greens that lasted three times as long without browning. In another set of approximately 50 trials that will run this summer in the Midwest, the startup will test how other treatments can help make corn drought-tolerant, better resist disease, or enhance yields. In a place like Iowa, where severe droughts are becoming more commonbut dont happen predictably every yearthe treatment for drought tolerance could help farmers adapt in real time. The state often has plenty of rain (or too much of it); switching completely to a drought-tolerant variety could mean lower yields in wet years. With Decibels platform, farmers could grow standard corn and then spray it with the new product. The shift in plant physiology happens in around a week. Our platform gives a grower the ability to kind of retune and rewire the plant physiology during the season, Bayer says. That’s something that hasn’t really been available to growers so far. If you plant a corn hybrid that doesn’t have drought tolerance and you have a drought, you don’t really have a way to deal with that. The company is starting in the U.S. but says theres an even greater opportunity to implement its technology in parts of the world with less irrigation, where farmers are completely dependent on rainfall. The idea is to smooth out the variability that growers see, so they can have a more predictable harvest, a more predictable income, more predictable food security in their region, he says. The basic platform can be used in multiple other ways. Some treatments could be applied to crops in advance of a major storm to help the plants survive floods. Another iteration could help keep plants growing under extreme heat. Treatments could also enhance photosynthesisor help crops use less fertilizer. The company has also tested approaches to help crops like soy and peas grow with extra protein, something that can be useful for making plant-based meat. The team plans to continue developing new products, with a focus on major row crops like corn and wheat. A new type of treatment for a particular crop can be developed within a matter of months. The approach could be employed commercially on farms as soon as next year, depending on pilot results and regulatory approval. (Though the method is new, it will likely be regulated as a “biostimulant” by the Environmental Protection Agency; since the DNA of the crops doesn’t change, it isn’t regulated as a genetically modified organism, or GMO.) As climate change progresses, it could be a critical tool to help the food system. “If you talk to farmers todayor even 10 years agoone thing that you hear over and over again is that the weather is more and more unpredictable every year,” Bayer says. “We know from climate models and a lot of data that we are seeing more extreme weather, and that impacts farmers directly on a day-to-day basis. Our big motivation here was, let’s try to give farmers some tools to adapt to this new reality.”
Category:
E-Commerce
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